Gun Ownership Statistics by State

With 88.8 guns per 100 residents, US has the highest gun ownership rate in the world. Based on 2014 data, whilst the US houses 4.6% of the world’s population, the nation has around 35-50% of civilian-owned guns worldwide. Furthermore, the US has the highest gun-related death rate among the advanced countries. Recent 2014 survey completed by the Pew Research Center highlighted about a third of all US citizens with children under 18 years old at home have a gun in their household. This includes 34% of families with children younger than 12 years old.

States with the highest and lowest gun ownerships

Which states have the highest gun ownership rates? The top three were Wyoming, Alaska and Montana. Based on General Social Survey’s Trends in Gun Ownership in the United States (1972-2014), whilst the household ownership of guns have declined in the recent decades, it indicates that in 2010 and 2014, 32% of adults lived in households with firearms. This was a decline of almost 19% from an average of 51% in 1976-1982.

What is the correlation between gun ownership and gun death? Read this article to learn about relationship between firearm ownership and fatalities, including some detailed analysis on states with the strictest and loosest gun laws.

Which states have the lowest gun ownership rates? The top three were District of Columbia (DC), Hawaii and New Jersey. Hawaii, the state that had one of the fewest gun-related deaths in 2010, had only 6.7% gun ownership and a gun murder rate of 0.5 out of 100,000 population.

Would you like to learn more about relationship between gun ownership and crime rates? You can download the following CSV file that contains a complete set of crime rates, gun deaths and gun ownership rates. There are a total of 51 records and 12 fields which include crime types such as violent, murder, rape, robbery, assault, property, burglary, larceny and motor-related crimes. All data are grouped by state. Simply follow the instructions below to download the text file.

The chart below illustrates trends in household gun ownership. This chart shows that the 31% of households reported having a firearm in 2014, which ties with 2010 for the lowest level of gun ownership in the last 40 years.

Gun ownership heat map

The following heat map illustrates all gun ownerships by state. You can click on each state to read more information.